The struggling Cowboys are now officially in trouble after they suffered a massive loss to the Storm at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Saturday, sinking to number 13 on the ladder with six losses for the year.

Melbourne proved they could backup their heated victory from Round 7 after being stripped of the right to earn competition points this year, playing with the same determination and passion.

North Queensland have disappointed many this year after a lot of the pre-season hype surrounded suggestions the team could make it to the finals for the first time in three years.

This finals dream now looks as good as over for the Cowboys, especially as the representative season begins in Round 9, further weakening the team.

North Queensland hasn’t won against Melbourne since 2006, and nothing changed on Saturday night as they lost by a hefty 28 points.

The Storm showed all the NRL teams that they won’t give away competition points easily as they scored seven tries to the Cowboy’s one.

In more bad news for North Queensland, star player Johnathan Thurston was re-injured in just his second match back after hurting his back.

Thurston is now likely to miss the Australia v New Zealand test match this Friday following the shoulder injury that forced him out of Saturday night’s match in just the 12th minute.

Melbourne dominated from the kick-off and kept the home team scoreless all through the first half while they secured four unanswered tries.

Bryan Norrie was first over the line in the 16th minute followed by tries by Matthew Duffie (23rd min), Greg Inglis (35th min) and Brett Finch (39th min) as the Cowboys put up little in the way of defence.

Cameron Smith could only convert the opening try, but it hardly mattered as their momentum in attack saw them head to the half-time break leading by a comfortable 18 points with the home team yet to score.

It was much of the same in the second half with Dane Nielsen scoring six minutes in, and Smith’s conversion saw them leap ahead by another six.

Before the Cowboys could get any points Anthony Quinn added more gloss to the Storm’s score with a 52nd minute converted try so that after 55minutes they lead 30 – nil.

Finally with 21 minutes left on the clock, Scott Bolton scored the Cowboy’s first try, which was converted by Ashley Graham giving them their only six points of a horror match in front of a record 19,850 fans.

The smug Storm still had a few more points in them yet, squashing the Cowboys further as Jeff Lima scored a final four-pointer 10 minutes from time and the final score read 34 – 6.